IT IS not every day that you meet someone like June Mar Fajardo.
He is as rare as Jose Rizal. Incomparable.
How he has grown so big and so tall even science has no answer to that.
Are his parents Bonifacio and Marites six-footers? Barely.
Why June Mar towered to 6-foot-10 only God knows.
We did have basketball behemoths before. Bonel Balingit, Bonifacio de Jesus and, yes, Marlou Aquino, my fellow Pangasinense.
Before them was a guy surnamed Carvajal, a 6-foot-8 or something who played briefly for the fabled Crispa Redmanizers.
But did they also excel as much as June Mar Fajardo?
Not really. Only Aquino had come close.
Aquino, 6-foot-9 or thereabouts, had the unmistakable tools—sound movement, Jabbar skyhook and a pivot foot rarely seen in tall players like him.
Alas, Aquino failed to rise to the occasion, his full potential hindered by his seeming lack of going the extra mile. Ask his coaches, including Robert Jaworski, and the answer is basically the same: he played overly cautious, not taking risks for fear of suffering a career-ending injury.
Indeed, the future belongs only to the brave.
Already, June Mar Fajardo has five Most Valuable Player awards across his name, his fifth coming only last Sunday.
That is a record, eclipsing the four MVPs shared by Ramon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio.
Only in his rookie year in 2013 did Fajardo miss winning the MVP plum. His San Miguel Beer teammate, Arwind Santos, was that year’s MVP.
Oddly, Fajardo missed pocketing the 2013 Rookie of the Year award, which went to Calvin Abueva.
Capturing five MVP awards is already awesome by all means. But Fajardo doing it five straight years from 2014 to 2018? Incredibly unbelievable.
Even the four MVPs each of Fernandez and Patrimonio did not happen successively for both.
I don’t think Fajardo’s five straight MVPs is going to be duplicated. Not in this lifetime. WW III may happen but not that.
And do you think Fajardo’s done?
Not to me.
If he gets to collect five more MVPs, be not surprised.
He’s only 29, turning 30 not until Nov. 17.